1st Brew On Braumeister - Pics

[stakka82]

Hey guys,

I have recently purchased a 50l Brau and have struggled to find info on the minimum amount of grain that can be used in the large malt pipe? I don't have a 20l malt pipe.

Reason being that my house beer is a 4% APA and off the top of my head at 80-85% efficiency I should only need around 7-8 kgs grain to achieve 50l of say 1042 beer.

Is it just a case of with less grain in the pipe, the bottom filter plate will move upwards during recirc? Or will less grain make a less compact grainbed/mass with the plates in the same place as they would be for a 9-10 kg bill and create channelling and mess with clarity/efficiency??

 

[stakka82]

bump!

 

[BeerNess]

No idea personally but if had that question I would call Mark of Mark's Home Brew shop in Newcastle as I know he's a Braumeister user himself. He's quite a guru.

Good luck!

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

I'd be interested to see the lowest people could go. I have taken my 25lt pipe to just over 4kg without a lick of trouble. Maybe below 4 would be asking for it. Similar scale up to 50.

You also have the option of diluting preboil or postboil (if the volume would threaten a boilover).

 

[mikk]

Hey guys,

I have recently purchased a 50l Brau and have struggled to find info on the minimum amount of grain that can be used in the large malt pipe? I don't have a 20l malt pipe.

Reason being that my house beer is a 4% APA and off the top of my head at 80-85% efficiency I should only need around 7-8 kgs grain to achieve 50l of say 1042 beer.

Is it just a case of with less grain in the pipe, the bottom filter plate will move upwards during recirc? Or will less grain make a less compact grainbed/mass with the plates in the same place as they would be for a 9-10 kg bill and create channelling and mess with clarity/efficiency??

I've used 8-8.5 kg in the 50L BM without any issues. A better way to do things though is to use more grain and do a 60L batch instead

 

[stakka82]

Thanks, that is the type of response I was looking for.

8kg should do me just fine, and as mentioned by Mr No tip I also have the option of further dilution post boil.

How much wort can the 50l comfortably fit with minimal boilover risk? I hear around 55 litres, is this correct?

 

[Damien13]

Just a quicky, Here has been my experience so far with efficiency.
Heff-88 percent but upon looking at spent grain I noticed a fair few uncracked grains. My mill was set about 1.2 mm approx. For my next brew I milled finer at about 1mm and had TERRIBLE efficiency 70 percent.
Both times I have been loading up the 50L with about 11-11.5 kg of grain. For my next brew I have reset my mill to 1.18 and am hoping for a 85 percenter again. Anyone else had this lower efficiency on a finer crush? If so what mill and setting had you rocking again.
Cheers,
Damien

 

[Damien13]

Bueller???

 

[vorno]

I've recently purchased the 50 ltr, done 3 brews and had problems with keeping the boil rolling. Once the temp reaches 100c and starts counting down I set the temp to 102c as advised earlier, but for the whole boil my controller only reaches 99 then cuts off drops to 98c stops boiling b4 the elements click on again and hits 99c etc etc. I tried with the lid on but the same thing happens. Can someone tell me if this is normal or do I have a problem with the controller or thermostat, or both? Last brew I hit my pre boil gravity on the mark but was a few points too low post boil and had the boil off set at 9%. Appreciate any advice
Cheers. Vorno

 

[Malted]

How much wort can the 50l comfortably fit with minimal boilover risk? I hear around 55 litres, is this correct?

I think I had 70L in mine the other day, no problems. The boils are not massively foaming monsters anyway.

Spediel say it will make 50L of finished beer.
Working backwards: This means it would be 50L of beer + loss to yeast in the fermenter so maybe 52 or 53L into the fermenter to yield 50L of finished beer.
This means you would want to allow for trub in the BM so you can have 53L to go to the fermenter, let's say 2-3L. That becomes 56L post boil.
If you conservatively had 10% loss due to evaporation during the boil, that means you would want 56L + 10% of preboil volume for loss to evap = around about 62L preboil.
Chances are that you might have a higher boil off rate than 10%.

Numbers are an approximation only but illustrates that 55L preboil might not yield 50L of finished beer.

 

[tiprya]

I've recently purchased the 50 ltr, done 3 brews and had problems with keeping the boil rolling. Once the temp reaches 100c and starts counting down I set the temp to 102c as advised earlier, but for the whole boil my controller only reaches 99 then cuts off drops to 98c stops boiling b4 the elements click on again and hits 99c etc etc. I tried with the lid on but the same thing happens. Can someone tell me if this is normal or do I have a problem with the controller or thermostat, or both? Last brew I hit my pre boil gravity on the mark but was a few points too low post boil and had the boil off set at 9%. Appreciate any advice
Cheers. Vorno

When programming, the last setting is 'Boil temperature" - I set mine to 102 there, and it leaves the heating element on for the full boil (reading 99 ot 100) the whole time.

I don't get a particularly vigorous boil, but my boiloff is about 6% per 30 minutes.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

I was going to post a new thread for these observations/questions, but it seems on topic here...

I've never really had a full handle on my boiloff, so thought I'd do an experiment (with water).

The first interesting thing I found is that the tie rod is not measuring what it says. There's a 5l compensation in there. The bottom ring is 20l, not 15l and so on. I can't believe I am the first one to notice this, but I don't remember actually reading it in the manual or on here. Is this common knowledge? Normally I just fill up to '23l' based on the line, but I guess that was 27l. Unless my unit is off, or unless I miscounted 5l (I didn't) I guess they are compensating for trub loss, so when you see it stop at the 20l ring, you'll get 20l of beer and 5l of trub?

I filled to the 20l ring (so actually 25l) and boiled off 4.5l in one hour with my element set at 99, mostly running at 98 (I am in Canberra so water boils low here). That's either 22% or 18% boiloff depending on which volume number you count.

Finally, doing the boiloff test with water, I got a good look at my elements for the first time. From looking at this video, it almost seems like only the centre element is firing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIaWkFN2Xo

I don't think have any issues with ramp temps - 1 degree per minute or better, which I understand as the standard. Has anyone else observed their elements?

 

[tallie]

I was going to post a new thread for these observations/questions, but it seems on topic here...

I've never really had a full handle on my boiloff, so thought I'd do an experiment (with water).

The first interesting thing I found is that the tie rod is not measuring what it says. There's a 5l compensation in there. The bottom ring is 20l, not 15l and so on. I can't believe I am the first one to notice this, but I don't remember actually reading it in the manual or on here. Is this common knowledge? Normally I just fill up to '23l' based on the line, but I guess that was 27l. Unless my unit is off, or unless I miscounted 5l (I didn't) I guess they are compensating for trub loss, so when you see it stop at the 20l ring, you'll get 20l of beer and 5l of trub?

I filled to the 20l ring (so actually 25l) and boiled off 4.5l in one hour with my element set at 99, mostly running at 98 (I am in Canberra so water boils low here). That's either 22% or 18% boiloff depending on which volume number you count.

Yes, I've noticed that the volumes on the rod don't line up with what I've actually measured on the 50L BM. It's about 3.5L more on the short malt pipe, which is a little more than what I lose to dead-space and trub after draining. So yes, I also guess it's meant to be an indicator of what you get into the fermenter, but if you're using it to base your expected extract and IBU calculations, it puts your numbers out.

Regarding boil-off, I've never understood why anyone measures it in terms of percentage of starting volume, unless you're brewing exactly the same volume every time. For example, I'm going to get very different figures for a single batch with the short malt pipe compared to a double batch with the regular pipe. I think measuring it in terms of % of whole vessel, or more simply, litres/hour, makes much more sense. In Brisbane, I set my boil to 101 and get just over 4L/h boil off with both the short and regular malt pipe (the latter only tested for one batch so far).

 

[tiprya]

None of those are going to be consistent. Set to the same heating level, you'll boiloff more L/h or % of total, if you start with a smaller volume (more vigourous boil).

You need to have an idea of how your boiloff changes with your starting volume. I know that if I sparge too much, I get quite a different boiloff volume - so my calculations are based on starting with roughly the same pre-boil volume every time (vary sparge amount) so I get consistent final volumes and gravities.

 

[vorno]

When programming, the last setting is 'Boil temperature" - I set mine to 102 there, and it leaves the heating element on for the full boil (reading 99 ot 100) the whole time.

I don't get a particularly vigorous boil, but my boiloff is about 6% per 30 minutes.

Thanks. Was afraid that might be the case as I've also had a go programming the boil temp at 102 and it still jumps between 98 & 99 never reaches 100c after it starts the countdown. Cheers

 

[Florian]

depending on how high above sea level you are you should still get up to 101 at least.

if you only reach 98-99 then something doesn't seem to be right.

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

depending on how high above sea level you are you should still get up to 101 at least.

if you only reach 98-99 then something doesn't seem to be right.

Not sure if I understand the 'should' in your post.

The system should be able to hit 101? It can, I just don't set it that high.

I should put it that high? Boil seems pretty decent at 99, that's why I stopped bothered going higher, and never had any DMS issues, so figured it was vigourous enough. We're at 571m and that is supposedly boiling point: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/boiling-points-water-altitude-d_1344.html

I might try a 101 next time and see how it goes. (and lose the boiloff numbers I figured out today!)

 

[DeGarre]

Well my 20L unit has a bottom notch for 15L, then a notch for 20L and top notch is 25L. I measured these once manually so am certain of these, perhaps they have changed the rod type...the litres were slightly off and the top notch is at 26L for my unit. I fill it to that top notch and rinse with further 6L and get to bottle 23L.

 

[Florian]

Not sure if I understand the 'should' in your post.

The system should be able to hit 101? It can, I just don't set it that high.

I should put it that high? Boil seems pretty decent at 99, that's why I stopped bothered going higher, and never had any DMS issues, so figured it was vigourous enough. We're at 571m and that is supposedly boiling point: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/boiling-points-water-altitude-d_1344.html

I might try a 101 next time and see how it goes. (and lose the boiloff numbers I figured out today!)

sorry, my bad, i only read your post previous to mine and not the older one, interpreted it as if you were having problems with your boil vigour.
No need to change anything if it all runs well, that's why i put that sea level comment in my post as well.

 

[dicko]

In the BM manual it says the tie down rod in the 20litre model are 15L 20L and 25L marks.
I have measured mine and the marks are one litre more at each mark respectively, so based on this and what I read above, I wouldn't use these marks for water measurement in your brew calculations.
Because my top mark is 26L I use this for mashing and sparge the balance of "water needed" for my recipe. This seems to give me my expected and predictable result for each brew.

Cheers